If you're anything like me, you love Lost as a series but the older seasons hold a special place in your heart. This takes place during Season 2 after Sawyer recovers from his shoulder gunshot wound but before The Hunting Party (so like 23rd Psalm). I watched Lost as a die hard Skate shipper but now being older I tend to lean more towards Jate but we'll see where this fic leads. I think, like a lot of other people, the dynamic between their love triangle is very interesting and fun to explore/write about.

It's been almost 10 years since I've made an attempt at writing like this so please be patient with me. It was encouraging when I logged into FF to see people still writing fics for one of my all time favorite shows and inspired me to try and put something together.

Please read and review if you have time and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this :)

It had hardly been a full day since Sawyer had woken up from the unconscious state that his shoulder injury induced. This also meant that it had been exactly one day since Kate kissed Jack in the jungle and ran away from him immediately after. Almost 24 hours ago, to the minute, she was kissing him. She thought about this as she made her way back from the hatch to the beach with a pair of scissors and a small handheld mirror in her hand. She hadn't seen Jack since then and she was nervous but also grateful having not seen him. She still didn't know what to think about the kiss. A part of her had wanted to do that for weeks but another part of her thought it seemed crazy and embarrassing to kiss him like that in the middle of an emotional breakdown.

"He must think I'm certifiable," she thought to herself. Maybe she hadn't seen him because he was avoiding her and an inevitable awkward conversation where he would have to remind her that they're trying to survive on an island where people are getting kidnapped by "others" and killed by monsters. That being said they don't have time for romantic head games. He was always so level headed which was part of why she felt her erratic behavior was so embarrassing.

As she finally approached the brush right before the beach she made a point to clear her head of all of those thoughts so she could focus on what she came there for, to give Sawyer an overdue haircut. A part of her knew she was using this interaction with Sawyer as a distraction from Jack, as she often did, she just tried not to think about it consciously. It wasn't that she only wanted to use Sawyer when she was avoiding Jack, she did feel something for him but she wasn't in a state to even approach Jack let alone sort out her confusing feelings for someone else.

Sawyer made it easy, he was either flirting or insulting someone and most of their interactions were surface level. After dealing with, what seemed like, literal ghosts from her past she felt more comfortable with him. Now that she could understand why she felt anything remotely positive about someone who bore any resemblance to the worst person she ever knew, she felt some weight removed from her conscience. He also seemed humbled and less hardened since he came back from the raft. There was something more human about him now that made it easier for her to spend time with him.

When she approached his tent he was sitting outside in his favorite airplane seat reading a book that she could only guess was "borrowed" from the hatch as she hadn't seen it around before and it wasn't in his literary rotation of Watership Down and porn magazines.

"Get up," she said simply while looking down at him - scissors extended in her hand so he would know why she was there.

He lifted his eyes from his book to the scissors in her hands and then up to her face. "And here I thought being a hero and getting shot while trying to get us rescued exempted me from the campfire castrations," he said with the classic glimmer in his eye that he always seemed to have when he shared more examples of his dark humor.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head while holding her free hand out to help him up knowing that it would be a while before his other arm was any use to him. It was strange having him back joking around again. It was like he never left and things were almost "back to normal" and for a split second she was able to remove the lingering feelings of embarrassment that she had for the last couple of days. "If your hair gets any longer…" she started to say as he grabbed her hand tightly and pulled himself up keeping his body as close as he could without actually touching her. She could feel heat coming off of his body and she's instantly reminded of how she had that same feeling with Jack yesterday in the jungle.

"If my hair gets any longer, what? You're going to have to braid it?" he smirked down at her. He loved making her flustered by flirting with her like this and she hated that he knew it. She wanted to scream at him that she had enough confusing feelings to deal with but she internalized it like she always did and moved away from him to try and regather herself.

"I grabbed one of the chairs from the kitchen," she stated as she headed towards the stool she brought over from the makeshift kitchen they had on the beach so she had a good angle to cut his hair.

"From the kitchen…" he mumbled under his breath as he compliantly sat down on the stool. "Is there a beachside living room I ain't seen yet?" he sighed rolling his eyes.

"We needed to be able to have food for everyone without people raiding the pantry at the hatch," she explained. "And, keep your head still."

After less than a moment of silence, Sawyer couldn't help himself to ask, "So Freckles, when'd you put the doc in the doghouse?" he smiled to himself even though she couldn't see it she could hear the smile in his voice.

"What are you talking about?" she went any hopes of possibly putting the situation with Jack out of her head even if just for a few moments.

"C'mon you don't have to pretend like there's nothing goin' on. Nearly everyone on this damn island can tell when you two are in one of your little rifts. Isn't that why you're here with me now? Or do you just want to take care of me now that there's a new injured hero in our community?" he asked clearly proud of himself because he turned his head to try and read her reaction.

"I told you to keep your head still," she snapped using her hands to turn his head forward towards the ocean again. "I'm helping you because your hair looked ridiculous and I don't think anyone else here would help you."

"I'll settle for your pity."

After an hour of him moving around like a child and making it near impossible to cut his hair efficiently, she was finally done. "Alright, I think we're done," she said brushing her fingers through the ends to make sure she didn't miss anything.

"It's about damn time, I've had to piss for 20 minutes," he grumbled standing up.

"If you would have sat still it would have taken half the time," she laughed, "Do you want to see what it looks like?" she asked holding the mirror out to him.

"I swear, if you gave me a mullet, Freckles, I have no problem exacting revenge," he mumbled trying to position the mirror so he could see the back of his hair better.

"Give it to me," she laughed, rolling her eyes, taking the mirror back and holding it up for him. "I think it looks really good," she said, still smiling, running her fingers through the ends of his hair, admiring her own work. It felt so nice to have normal untense conversations with someone. She couldn't stop smiling just for the relief of that feeling but it quickly went away when she heard a familiar voice say "hey" behind her.

She turned around to confirm what she heard to see Jack with a medicine bottle in his hands. Her smile quickly faded unsure of how to conduct herself or what he was thinking. Should she be serious? Should she be happy? She kept her eyes fixed on him trying to read his mood or how he felt. She kissed him yesterday, ran off, and was now spending time with Sawyer after not talking to him since then.

"I have your pills," he said without any tone in his voice, dumping the bottle into his hand before handing the pills over to Sawyer. "I'm giving you two but I would take one now and save the other one for tonight if the pain gets bad again."

"I'll have my nurse make sure I take the proper dose," Sawyer smirked over at Kate who wanted to be as far away from this situation as possible. He had a talent for pushing both her and Jack's buttons at the same time. It was arguably his favorite game to play.

She crossed her arms over her chest to try and hide any reaction to either of them. She felt like her emotions were completely frozen and she had no idea how to conduct herself. Both of these men had gotten close to her in a way that she had hardly experienced in her life and it was incredibly jarring. The feeling that she felt deep down was to get away, to run. Kate hated the feeling more than anything. Sure, she had to actually run from the police for years but the feeling of having to run away from intimacy time and time again was a lot harder than running from the police. Jack wanted to know her and Sawyer could read her like a book. There was a part of her that liked that about them, they wanted to know her, but the thought of them actually getting to know her and the risk of them turning out like everyone else in her life, made her want to keep them as far away as possible.

Jack breathed out hardly a smile at Sawyer's comment as he screwed the cap back on the medicine bottle. "Have a good night guys," he said flatly, giving a small smile to the both of them before walking away.

"Good night…" Kate replied quietly, watching him walk away. The dreaded feeling knowing he wasn't happy with her became prevalent again. She was going to have to talk to him about the kiss. She could just apologize and say it was a mistake and then things could go back to normal right?

"So what's next, Freckles? Spin the bottle?" he asked, still smiling down at her.

She gave a small laugh shaking her head. "Good night, Sawyer," she said squeezing his good shoulder lightly before walking back to her tent.

I apologize, this was a lot of inner thought but I wanted to set the mindset of what was happening. It also turned into deleted scenes from 23rd Psalm - should I keep doing the unseen Jate/Skate scenes during episodes or should I go off the track? Let me know and thank you again for anyone who took the time to read this! :)